gejohesch

Did I say the lines I wrote reflected my own thinking??? Could you not get it that I was trying to work out the logical paths of the persons who manage tourism, visas etc???? You are just over-reacting a bit. Jai yen yen! And just for you to know, one does not need to stay at expensive hotels or condos to spend a lot of money in this country. You seem to ignore that lots of foreigners heavily invest via their Thai spouses or long term partners.

But maybe maybe, they don't really like tourists, they only like their money (expenditures being forecast to the nearest 100 baht). There are genuine doubts whether people staying for longer periods are genuine tourists = donkeys loaded with bags of cash ????. Probably, there are stats showing that those are rather likely to hunkering down on the cheap ????- that's not what they want!

Obvious, is it not? When playing with catchy (but empty) slogans like "unleash the nation's potential" or "bucaneering Britain", one should always remember that geography is a key factor in international relations. Like it or not, the British Isles are part of Europe, separated only by a few 10's of kms from the European continent. Geographical proximity in this case is a factor amplified by economy indeed.

What sort of diplomacy? Forget about all the propaganda (foreigner as well as Thai sources). In the 19th century, like it or not, no country could resist the aggression of a western country. The first non-western country that did, if I remember correctly, was Japan in the war against Russia 1904-1905 .... and that raises the question whether Russia was a real "western country".... But I digress... A key factor of international politics in the 19th century was that France and Great Britain had at last learnt an important lesson at the end of the Napoleonic wars : that they had nothing to gain by continuing fighting head on against each other. So they started making agreements around the planet to avoid any new direct confrontation. In Asia, they agreed to keep a neutral zone between their "possessions" : Indochina (France) and India - Malay states - Burma (Great Britain). That was the luck of Siam. But not to forget that in the process, Siam lost its suzerainty over Cambodia and Laos (to France) and had to sign off to GB : Kedah and Kelantan (joining the Malay States) as well as the Shan State (joining Burma). That's hard reality. The rest is propaganda and face-saving.

Makes a lot of sense, obviously.

That's a bit reassuring. I'm "fully" vacc'ed (3 times Pfizer, the last one in Dec 2021). So, no need to get another jab then? Another question I have is, I'm going for 1 week to Cambodia later in January (3d week), then back to Thailand. Will I need to worry about getting tested to (first) fly from BKK to Cambodia, and (second) to fly back to Thailand 1 week later? Shxt, when we were thinking that we could start relaxing a bit about COVID! ???? Now we have to start worrying about all those rules again! ????

I opted for a TR visa to get a 60 days stretch before having to "do sthg", but if Thailand maintain the current 45 days visa exemption period, I will not renew the TR visa experience!

The guy got it wrong, I'm shorter than 1m80! ????

That's nothing new to me, thanks. ???? I have answered several times already f this sort of comment. I am totally prepared to provide documents and answer questions, and btw I do not have the least fragment of racist attitude (to reply to someone above). I just was not prepared for the unfriendliness of the IO and for the extra request for a boarding pass of a flight before the flight arriving to BKK - as far as I know, that is not normally requested.

As a few above shared their experiences in other parts of the world, I will share a recent one I had (or rather witnessed) in Portugal. A friend of mine, citizen of another EU country than Portugal, wanted to register as resident in Lisbon. I happened to be around and I accompanied her to one of the "Lojas da Cidadão" to do the registration. A "Loja da Cidadão" is an office where all sorts of civil services are provided. In principle, the registration is immediate for any EU citizen. Just have to show an ID and fill a form with some basic info. Now, it happened to be a woman behind the desk and she was absolutely horrible, no idea why. The process only took some 15 minutes, I sat down with my friend to put the various docs in order (she had brought far more than what was required, to be on the safe side), on the chairs at the back of the office, a few metres from the desks. We chatted a bit of course, not loud at all, but another woman behind another desk told us off in a spurt of very unfriendly words. We could not understand any of it but the feeling was there. We left the office shocked by the very unfriendly attitude of the 2 women.

Are you sure? He might have become one of the Democrats' best assets, as he puts off loads of moderate Republicans and independent voters - as it has been demonstrated in the recent elections for congress.

There are 2 types : - the pleasant ones; - the ones who seem to wake up in the morning with the idea that they "have to defend the mother country against the undesirable foreigners". When I used to commute on the BTS in BKK, I saw that second type a number of times, usually women in uniform with frowning faces, going to work in some gvt office I guess. Having said that, I think these 2 types can be found in just about any country!

Not difficult, but passes prior to the flight arriving to Thailand : that's not a normal part of the "process", as far as I know.

Sorry but this is wrong: 1 - it never says anywhere "boarding pass from all the flights from departure point" (correct me, maybe I'm blind?), so the natural interpretation is " boarding pass for the flight of arrival in Thailand", which would make sense as (already said many times above), the IO needs to put in the record the flight number with which one arrives in BKK. Imagine the situation where one would take more than 2 flights from initial departure point to arrival in Thailand : would the IO require to see all the boarding passes? Would that not verge on the ridiculous? 2 - I cannot see what was wrong in "including the GF" in the post, as it directly related to where I was going to stay in Thailand - again, another (natural) question from the IO (and no problem with that)

I never had an unpleasant experience either (and I cannot count my entries to Thailand anymore!) .... until this time. This is why I'm puzzled and put this post on. Everything being subjective (of course), I can tell you that I look as respectable and as properly dressed as (nearly) everyone else. ????

Good reply, thanks, sums up a good part of the story I think.

Possibly

My own experience going to the USA (most of the time on business) : yes, the IO's question lots, but it was never unpleasant.

That seems indeed to be the case. What they do not seem to realise is that lots of the guys who "have GF's but are not tourists" bring a lot more cash into the country than the usual tourists.

Ah, that could explain my experience. I agree, "smile, be polite, answer whatever questions they have and don’t try to go be friends with them" It's not really so much that I was asked questions that irritated me a bit (hence my post) but it's 1) that the IO was at the edge of being unpleasant; and 2) I could not understand why having shown my boarding pass on the plane arriving in BKK, the IO also insisted for "the boarding pass" which eventually turned out to be the one for the plane I had taken to arrive in Dubai (where I transited to BKK). That I find was a bit over the top. Next time they will also ask me to show a receipt for my taxi ride to the departure airport in the EU???

It's my experience as well. My GF visited 8 to 10 times countries in the Schengen area already, she never had to show much documentation. Usually, passport only - with Schengen visa. Sometimes I believe, she was asked to show my invitation to come (there is a standard Schengen form for that), but I'm not even sure. There are hurdles to get a Schengen visa - we know by experience - but once it's done, it's plain sailing! (not "plane sailing", obviously ????)

Just came to this comment. You may have a point, especially as I am now traveling with a brand new passport. My entry to Thailand was the first time I used it to travel.

That's not the point. The point is that if a Thai embassy has issued a visa, having verified all the paperwork required for that, there has by definition already been quite a level of filtering.

I have lived and worked in Australia. True, a lot of paper work required for some things. For other things though, dead easy!

Another thing I would like to add. I can understand why the USA IO's are a bit of a pain : 1) the ESTA electronic authorisation process (online) which I used a few times to go to the USA (in the 90's and 2000's) did not ask for much info, so the "filtering" at that stage was minimal. Hence some additional checking would naturally be required on arrival in the USA. 2) the USA has been for a long time now the target of several terrorist organisations, justifying a high level of scrutiny by the IO's. That would also be the case, I imagine, for Israel. So, again : having already passed quite some screening / filterig when applying for the TR visa, and Thailand not being such a target by malevolent foreigners as the USA or Israle could be. Then why should the IO's at the entry point to Thailand be particularly inquisitive when dealing with a TR visa holder?